Page 14 - Ashton & Backwell FC v Bridgwater Utd 310123

Match Report

Ashton & Backwell UFC 4 v Keynsham Town AFC 0

FINAL SCORE: A+BUFC 4 [HEDGES 29M & 79M; BANKS 40M; BENNINGTON-MANNINGS
63M] V KEYNSHAM TOWN FC 0; HALF TIME 2-0

This Boxing Day Derby match against local rivals the Ks started in heavy rain, and it took
fifteen minutes, until the skies began to clear, for the match to really get started, with
the first genuine chance, a White free kick pushed away by Ks keeper Duncan under
pressure. The visitors returned the complement four minutes later, a good move into the
home box, but unable to get a shot through the defence. Yet this also marked a decisive
change in the match, from then on, the Ks had very few chances, Brain, on 56, beat two
Stags defenders in the box, turned and hit the bar and the same player forced debutant
Roberts to tip his free kick over the bar in the last minute. That aside a well-organised
Stags defence, led by Captain Tom Anthony, snuffed out any Ks advances.
The Stags on the other hand had numerous opportunities in a display of fast-moving
football. First Banks robbed the defence and fed Saunders whose shot was charged
down, then Hardidge’s effort down the right let him supply Hedges on the box edge for
a clean strike for the opener, 1-0. Minutes later Hedges, Banks, Bennington-Mannings
and Walker combined, and his final pass just failed to connect with a diving Saunders,
goal at his mercy. And perhaps he could have made better used of a ball from a deep
freekick, shooting wide when free in the box. But five minutes from the interval Banks
made no mistake, Anthony’s cross was not cleared by Anderson, Banks robbing him and
striking low for the second.
Post-interval Stags maintained the pressure, two minutes in and White’s long looping
shot beat Duncan but went just over the bar and, not long after, a good passage of play
saw Hardidge’s final finish go narrowly wide. Yet the pressure did tell in the 63 minute,
rd
when another mix-up in the K’s defence gave possession to Hardidge, he supplied Banks
whose shot was pushed away, Bennington-Mannings taking the rebound to score close
home. Cummings was the next to try, free in the box from a great through ball, the K’s
desperately defending, yet they could do little to prevent Lewis Hedges adding his
second ten minutes from the end, taking possession from a throw-in and then volleying
past the keeper from 12 yards out. M.O.M. Lewis Hedges

Overall a comprehensive win against a young K’s team; next is another derby, Cadbury
Heath away on 2 January, and perhaps a sterner test as we enter 2023. Next home
nd
game January 7 V Wellington, 3pm K.O.
th
Team:
ROBERTS, ANTHONY ©, WALKER [SUB CATTERMOLE 66M], WHITE [SUB NEWMAN
66M]
REECE HEDGES [SUB BISHOP 74M], PEARCE, BENNINGTON-MANNINGS [SUB
CUMMINGS 71M]
LEWIS HEDGES, BANKS, CHARLIE SAUNDERS, HARDIDGE [SUB FORD 77M]